Christmas Greetings

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all our readers! We hope the snow in the UK has added to the Christmas spirit and not prevented family and friends from being together. We miss our family and friends at this time, particularly Emily and Simon, who are having a second Christmas without us.

Ben is much better now and has been given the all clear from cancer and from the infection which followed the operation. Thank you to everyone who gave their support during the last few weeks. Simon and Erin have finished their contracts in South Korea and started their honeymoon/travels. They are somewhere in Thailand and, like us, they will be enjoying a tropical Christmas in shorts or swimwear, sipping cold beers or rum punch, taking a dip in the warm sea to cool off and watching the sunset over a distant and vast horizon, perhaps sheltering from the heat in the shade of coconut palms. No sledging for us!

Unfortunately, paradise was very nearly spoiled with the return of the cockroaches, the first ones being caught and killed on the day before we were launched in Trinidad. We suspect they crawled up the electricity wire or hosepipe, but they could have hitched a ride on our vegetables. They are much smaller than the Canary Island variety and harder to see. There was one in the fridge which crawled over my hand when I thought I’d squashed it – ugh! I made sure it was dead and flushed it down the sink. We haven’t seen any live ones for a week now, so we hope all the bug spraying we did has been effective.

We have moved on from the island of Grenada to one of her sister islands called Carriacou. This is probably our favourite Caribbean island and is part of the beautiful Grenadines. We hiked over the south coast and along at least a mile of empty white sand beach, stopping to drink milk from a green coconut on the way. We were so sad to see the hurricane damaged and later vandalised Cassada Bay Resort, which once must have been quite exclusive, with a fabulous view across the southern, uninhabited islands. We’ve taken in some local culture by supporting the Parang Festival, where six bands competed against each other and the audience sat for four hours on concrete steps. The Governor General and his wife were just in front of us, but they had chairs and very obvious security guards. We were so tired when the event finished at 2.00am, about 4 hours after our usual bedtime! This time, we have been more adventurous with trying local food such as rotis, doubles, plantains and provisions. We can’t swallow the hot sauce though, which makes Tabasco seem mild! Mum – I’ve started to eat cabbage and Em and Ben – we’ve been eating garlic! Don’t think it’s deterred the mossies, yet.

Today, we had a great time anchored off an outlying, uninhabited island called Frigate Island. The water was as clear as the sea off Isle de Ronde, where we stopped for lunch and a snorkel on our way from Grenada. I used my camera underwater for the first time, so thanks to all my work colleagues who contributed towards it as a retirement present. We will be posting some photos soon.

In the meantime, enjoy the festive season and the break from work and school. If you fancy a bit of winter sun, we’re in the Caribbean for 3 more months and we have some spare berths, as long as you don’t all come at once!